What's the Name of That Book??? discussion

Think book was likely written before 1996. The main protagonist is a girl who struggles with weight issues and she befriends another girl in school, Cassiopeia, who is quirky and has an odor to her that fellow classmates find undesirable. It turns out the girl and her family are temporarily homeless and when she leaves town with her family, the main protagonist's mother buys her daughter glow in the dark stars for her room that she then uses to form the constellation of Cassiopeia to remember her friend.

Just doing a keyword search, maybe The Fastest Friend in the West by Vicki Grove? Hesitant to offer because no one seems to go by the name Cassiopeia and I couldn't find the detail about the stars, but one girl is concerned about her weight & the other is temporarily homeless and refers to herself as "coming from the constellation of Cassiopeia."

Stephanie wrote: "Just doing a keyword search, maybe The Fastest Friend in the West by Vicki Grove? Hesitant to offer because no one seems to go by the name Cassiopeia and I couldn't find the detail a..."

I think that's the book, Stephanie! I'm going to check with my library patron, but it sure sounds like that's the one! If so, you solved a title search that stumped quite a few librarians!!

Google Books has a snippet search of The Fastest Friend in the West by Vicki Grove - Stephanie's suggestion. You might get lucky searching for keywords:

https://books.google.com/books?id=LWA...

Quotes:
"I'm originally from the forty - fourth star in the constellation Cassiopeia," she went on, as though reading my mind. I just looked at her. What do you say to something like that?

It was covered with tiny stars - stars joined into patterns by delicate straight lines. Constellations, that's what they were. One, shaped like a "W," was done darker, traced over a bunch of times. Well, maybe she really was from Cassiopeia ...

"No pancakes for me, thanks, Mom," I said, reaching for a banana. "I'm trying to lose a little weight." She opened her mouth, and I thought she looked a little pale ...

Yeah, there are several other people at Greenpoint trying to lose weight, and we sit together in the cafeteria, out of the line of temptation, nowhere within smelling distance of the spaghetti and chicken and stuff.

SOLVED!!
Thank you Stephanie and Kris!
We did check with the patron and that's the book she was looking for. You all, rock!